Newbie looking at properties in the Fox Valley

Hey everyone! I'm fairly new to BP and real-estate investing. It intrigues me because of the number crunching. I realize it's more than that, but that's what first caught my attention. My wife and I are looking at properties in the Fox Valley area from Appleton down to Fond du Lac. We own our own home, but are actually looking to move and likely rent the current one. We also have an offer in on a single family in Menasha to use as an AirBnB. With the demand from EAA and all the events in Appleton (and Packer games...Go Pack Go!), we thought we'd give that a try. If not, then we rent it out on yearly leases. At this point, we're just looking for a little extra income and the possibility of doing this into retirement. We have a great agent and a CPA, but we're looking to build out our network. What I'm really curious about his hard money/private lending in the valley, and good contractors for flipping/upgrading. I have very little skill myself in doing fix up projects. Does anyone know of any lenders and contractors? Also, I'm thinking about joining the REIA chapter in Appleton (We actually live SW of Oshkosh). Does anyone have any good feedback on that? Thanks!

Chris